John Shipley / St. Paul Pioneer Press

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Minnesota United’s fan clubs did a remarkable thing last week. Wonderwall, the managing group for smaller grassroots supporters clubs, asked the MLS team not to acquire goalkeeper Agustin Rossi because of a domestic violence allegation made against him. Rossi, 23, has been playing in Argentina’s top league and an Argentine radio station has reported he’s on the way to St. Paul on an 18-month loan with an option to purchase (for $12 million). No, thanks, says Wonderwall.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday, Jan. 15, designated Maya Moore a core player, a franchise tag that takes away unrestricted free agency for a one-year contract and small raise. The eight-year WNBA veteran and four-time league champion with the Lynx doesn’t appear happy about that. According to a WCCO-TV report, Moore is considering sitting out the 2019 WNBA season or even retiring. The report prompted Lynx coach and general manager Cheryl Reeve to respond Thursday, Jan. 17.

ST. PAUL -- One wants so badly to blame Jimmy Butler, for everything, really; from Tom Thibodeau getting fired on Sunday, Jan. 6, to “SpongeBob SquarePants” losing steam after Season 3. Alas, in the case of Thibs, the guy wrote his own ticket to inoccupation. Butler didn’t trade for himself.

We’ve got one last chance to make it real, Bruce Springsteen once sang. The Vikings know the feeling. Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Bears can extend the season but won’t salvage it. If they manage to beat surging Chicago, the relief will be brief. They have to win again and again and again once more just to keep pace with last year’s surprise run to the NFC Championship.

After the Minnesota Twins traded closer Fernando Rodney to Oakland in an Aug. 9 waiver-wire deal, manager Paul Molitor spent the next two months auditioning replacements. Molitor is gone, but three top internal candidates for closer remain. Trevor Hildenberger, Taylor Rogers and Trevor May earned saves as the season wound down, seven by side-armer Hildenberger, two by left-hander Rogers and three by power-arm May.

After the Minnesota Twins traded closer Fernando Rodney to Oakland in an Aug. 9 waiver-wire deal, manager Paul Molitor spent the next two months auditioning replacements. Molitor is gone, but three top internal candidates for closer remain. Trevor Hildenberger, Taylor Rogers and Trevor May earned saves as the season wound down, seven by side-armer Hildenberger, two by left-hander Rogers and three by power-arm May.

MINNEAPOLIS — Most of us have by now figured out the 2018 Vikings are not the team we thought they’d be. On Sunday, Dec. 16, we’ll find out if the Vikings are the team they thought they’d be, because despite all evidence to the contrary, the Vikings insist there is life left in them. We’ll know shortly. The Vikings have three games to fix their offense, nail down a playoff spot and convince the rest of us to keep paying attention.

ST. PAUL -- Byron Buxton was representing the Twins on Tuesday, Dec. 11, at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, but he wasn’t there for the team. “This is for the kids, for the fans,” he said. “It’s worth it.” The Twins’ erstwhile center fielder flew with his family all the way from Georgia for a four-hour holiday event sponsored by the Twins and Target at Gillette’s St. Paul campus. He was happy to join teammate Trevor Hildenberger, as well as former Twins Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, and spend time with the young patients.

When P.J. Fleck first became a head football coach, a colleague pulled him aside. “He said, ‘I’ve got great advice for you,’ ” Fleck recalled Wednesday, Dec. 5. ” ‘You never, ever play Georgia Southern, or that Paul Johnson guy.’ And here I am.” Fleck was sitting beside Johnson at Ford Field in Detroit on Wednesday as the first official business of the Quick Lane Bowl, which will pit Fleck’s Gophers (6-6) against Johnson’s Georgia Tech (7-5) in a 3:15 p.m. kickoff Dec. 26.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Joe Mauer had a standing offer to return to the Twins as a player in 2019; now he has a standing offer to return to the organization in a different capacity, whatever that might be. He seems willing to accept it — at some point. “No matter what happens, I’ll be here and be ready to help this team win in the future,” Mauer said during his retirement news conference Monday, Nov. 12, at Target Field.